Arts DEVO

The world is waiting for you Just as the CN&R was going to press last week, Arts DEVO got a message that Amarok/Cold Blue Mountain singer Brandon Squyres and his buddy Adam Switzer are one of the two-person teams competing on the upcoming season of the reality show The Amazing Race. As un-possible as the notion of Squyres (who as frontman for The Makai once pulled a blood-soaked severed head out of a bucket during a CAMMIES performance at the Senator Theatre) being on a reality TV show seemed, sure enough, there on the CBS website was a picture of him and Switzer smiling through their glorious beards, looking like a couple of cousins from the Duck Dynasty clan.

I wanted to write how this kind of thing just doesn’t happen, but that’s not true. Chico’s already had a couple of residents who have starred on reality-TV shows—Jessica “Flica Flame” Smith on Survivor: Cook Island in 2006, and Shawntel Newton on The Bachelor in 2011. But this is definitely different. This is the kind of scenario you dream up with your buddies after a few beers (“I would only watch Big Brother if Sourdough Slim, The Scribbler and one of the dudes from Amarok were all on there.”)

The really cool thing is that these are two of Chico’s righteous dudes. You could hardly pick two people you’d want to root for more, and when the race kicks off this Sunday (Sept. 29, at 8 p.m., on CBS), we should all pre-game with a session of slow, purposeful head-banging to the tune of Amarok’s sludgy 20-minute-long “IV – Survival.”

Keeping up with the Indars Josh and Robin Indar, frontpersons for sassy Chico power trio Severance Package are now the proud owners of their own record label. Shut Up Records, the punk/garage/rock label from Portland, Ore., that had already released Sev Pac’s five-song 7-inch All Down Hill, was recently passed on to the couple by their buddy, Brad Lackey. The first order of business for the new Shut Up is a reissue of the Package’s six-song blast of ass-kicking fun, What’s Yr Function?—featuring a new Esperanto version of their classic 40-second anthem, “Pow (Eat Fried Poop!).” Sing along on at their next show (Saturday, Sept. 7, at Monstros): “Pau! Eato Friti Pobo!”

What is not hip Last Thursday (Aug. 29), at Laxon Auditorium, East Bay soul-funk legends Tower of Power opened the Chico Performances season in style, and afterward some local dirtbag(s) made sure that the night ended on a sour note by breaking into sax-man Tom Politzer’s car and ripping off his horn and his golf clubs. From the band’s Facebook page: “This sax is a black Yamaha tenor with a gold mouthpiece. If anyone hears anything, please contact me at brian@towerofpower.com. No questions asked. We want this stuff back.” C’mon dirtbag(s), do the right thing!

Coda correction A couple of weeks ago (Aug. 22) in this column, I incorrectly reported that Dan Elsen was replaced as Café Coda’s booker, when he is, in fact, still involved in promoting shows there. Apologies and a big hug to my fuzzy friend. For information on bookings at the café, email booking@cafecoda.com.